1. Field
Various medical centers, other than hospitals, may benefit from having combined surgical and fixed imaging services. For example, ambulatory surgical centers may benefit from having a hybrid operating room that combines such surgical and fixed imaging services.
2. Description of the Related Art
Combined surgical and fixed imaging services in an operating room have been provided only in hospital facilities. Hospital facilities are generally designed with a variety of special features to fulfill strict safety requirements that add significantly to the cost to build and operate the hospital facility. For example, hospitals are typically constructed to adhere to strict building codes. Hospitals, for example, are classified according to International Building Code (IBC) as Institutional Group I-2, meaning occupancy shall include buildings and structures used for medical care on a 24-hour basis for more than five persons who are incapable of self-preservation. Hospitals typically also have heightened requirements regarding fire control, such as specific required building materials, in part because the occupants of the hospital are often incapable of self-preservation, as noted above.
Furthermore, hospitals traditionally include a variety of equipment. Normally, a hospital includes a number of hospital beds. Similarly, hospitals typically include patient rooms, which may house those hospital beds, and patient restrooms. Often, the size of a hospital is given as the number of beds the hospital has. Furthermore, hospitals also often include other facilities, such as a pharmacy, a lab, a morgue, and facilities providing radiology services, infection isolation, dietary services, linen services, emergency services, and the like.
Additionally, hospitals normally are required to have disaster prevention provisions for the primary structure and services as well as a disaster response plan, policy, and capabilities. Likewise, in view of the size of hospitals, hospitals often include central services (for example, central sterilization services), materials management, environmental services, and engineering services.
According to conventional wisdom, combined surgical and imaging services in an operating room are best provided in a hospital context. For example, imaging equipment is often heavy and has substantial power requirements. Hospitals, with their massive infrastructure, can readily accommodate such requirements. Also, imaging equipment often requires shielding due to the use of radiation, such as x-rays. Again, the infrastructure of a hospital is conventionally thought to be the only medical facility infrastructure adapted to safely accommodate such a purpose. For example, the thick concrete walls and floors of a typical hospital can help to block radiation.
Operating rooms for providing combined surgery and fixed imaging in a hospital are comparatively large. For example, a typical combined surgical and fixed imaging surgery room in a hospital may be in the range of 800 to 1000 square feet. For example, operating rooms in a hospital need to be of such comparatively large size in order to accommodate the performance of up to twenty to thirty different surgical specialties and sub-specialties as may normally be performed in a hospital, such as cardiac, thoracic, vascular, obstetrics, gynecological, orthopedic, podiatric, urologic, otolaryngologic, neurosurgery, trauma, ophthalmology, gastrointestinal, transplant, general surgery, colorectal surgery, hand surgery, endocrine surgery, breast surgery, plastic surgery, head and neck surgery, surgical oncology, pediatric surgery, spine surgery, oral maxillo facial surgery and so on.
Furthermore, hospitals typically are required to have particularly robust infectious vector isolation as well as high quality and sophisticated nurse call systems. Hospitals also have requirements for control of airborne sound transmission and water temperature requirements. Hospitals also normally have medical gas systems with strict requirements on their number and amount of testing. Likewise, elevators in hospitals are required to be large to accommodate gurney traffic.
As mentioned above, hospitals typically have specific fire code requirements. For example, hospital construction materials must be non-combustible and must provide for patient and staff safety in case of an emergency. Because hospitals are viewed as essential in case of a disaster, hospitals must be able to withstand greater events, such as earthquakes, floods, and the like. The structure also needs to be designed to provide the option of defending the structure in place rather than evacuating the structure.
To support such objectives, hospitals may be required to have redundancy of critical services, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), power, water supply, water heating, and the like. Furthermore, the materials from which the building is constructed, including the finishes for interior walls and ceilings, must comply with strict fire requirements, such as a very low flame spread index. Other similar reinforcements and protections may likewise be required. In short, a hospital is normally required to have a significantly enhanced infrastructure.
By contrast, conventional ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) can be constructed in office buildings. These buildings have various code requirements, but typically these requirements are much less strict, and therefore, can be fulfilled with significant cost savings as compared to the cost to build a hospital. For example, an IBC class B structure, which may house an ASC, will have significantly less strict construction requirements than an IBC class I-2 structure, typically associated with the construction of a hospital. Similarly, the air change requirements for ASCs and other requirements may be much less strict for ASCs than for hospitals.
Likewise, ASCs typically do not require a pharmacy, a lab, a morgue, linen services, dietary services, and the like. Indeed, ASCs normally do not have any hospital beds, because it is not expected that the patients will be staying overnight.
Similarly, typical operating rooms in ASCs may be smaller than in hospitals. For example, an operating room in an ASC may be less than 600 square feet and possibly as small as 425 square feet. Furthermore, an ASC may generally offer only one to ten different surgical specialties, rather than the twenty to thirty surgical specialties offered in a typical hospital.
ASCs can herein or otherwise be described in various ways. For example, ASCs can also be referred to as clinics, outpatient surgical centers, and the like. Thus, herein or otherwise the term ASC can refer generally to ASCs, clinics, outpatient surgical centers and similar structures.